Sunday, September 20, 2009

Python IDEs #2

I downloaded Netbeans 6.7 Python Early access today.And it is as powerful as it can get.

It comes with Python and Jython support with all the stuff you'd expect including code completion,syntax highlighting and great preview support.You don't have to worry about gettingindentation correct,typing those annoying selfs over and over and if you are more comfortable with Swing rather than wxWidgets you can suit youself

For those who haven't heard of Jython here's a quick and dirty explanation.Basically it allows you to write python code that is compiled into java bytecode and you can do the all the stuff using the JDK in a Python like syntax that somehow takes care of the discrepancy between dynamically typed Python and statically typed Java(Well,I have to concede that somehow you can use introspection in Java to do the same,but it sounds messy and not right)

So where does Jython leave good old Python?Keep in mind that Jython is distinct from Python.So you can develop python apps the way you always did,but now you can use the good autocompletion features and the debugger and if you want your Python code to interoperate withJava frameworks and in the end have the JVM execute it rather than the Python interpreter